Much as been said about the movie, much more have been read. I am going to keep away from reviewing the movie and rather talk about where the movie worked ,where it could have worked better and why it is going to leave a good after taste.
For starters, I thought the opening credits were brilliant.It just set the tone for what followed next. Though the movie starts with a disclaimer like all other Mani movies, it was clear from the beginning that this was Mani's interpretation of a slice of the great epic, Ramayana.
Going in , I knew what the plot was about, just like one knew what Thalapathi was . Did anyone notice the striking resemblance in locations between Thalapathi and this? Following Nayagan,Thalapathi , in this movie too, Mani makes the bad guy the protogonist and tries to examine the different shades of his character. We all knew Velu Nayakkar was an outlaw,so was Surya and so is Veeraiyya(Vikram). Where Mani succeeds is he steers the audience away from falling in love with his characters, and instead makes them look at the characters from a different lens than the ones they have been using all along.

In ravannan too, you dont end up falling in love with Veeraiya's character. However you can see where his emotions are coming from. He is enraged with his brother -in-law who ditched his sister, his is enraged with Dev, for ruining his sister's wedding, he is furious with the inspector for ruining her life. You see his thirst for revenge and you understand why he kidnapped Dev's wide. His idea of an eye for an eye. Mani sticked to the epic here, though taking it to the extreme side. ( for the uninitiated, in Ramayana, Ravana kidnaps Sita because his sister Shurpanaka's nose and ears were cut off by the short tempered Laxman)

It was Ragini's(Sita) spunk that caught his attention first. Had he been just the usual bad guy who would shoot/stab anyone without a second thought, this probably would not have happened. But Veera isnt. He is yet another robinhood,a goodie at heart refusing to follow the rule of law for doing the good that he believes in. Which is why he is unable to kill Ragini, though he tells his brothers and mates, it would be a matter of 14 minutes, before Ragini is dead.
The more time he spends with her, he realizes he is falling for her. Nothing hard to chew here, we have seen leading men fall for heroines for way less than that. Mani stuck to the epic here too, Ravannan did go to kidnap Sita an act of revenge, but the moment he saw her, he was consumed by her beauty, and wanted her more than anything. The scene where Veera plays with the children while asking her to stay with him was masterclass. I noticed a resemblance to Guna here( did anyone?) .
Was Veera shown in a much better light that he actually was? I dont think so. It was already established that he had in him a streak of badness. Why go in to details about that? Also again going to the epic, Ravanna was a great ruler, he was infact quoted to be the best ruler in Lanka, who took great care of his citizens. He was an extreme devout, a great musician. But we knew he was a bad guy because of the one big mistake he made.Which is exactly why I do not feel, it was necessary to examine the darkness in his character. Why say more when you can say less?
That is what I thought about Dev(Ram) as well. He was a police officer and the good guy in this case, as he is out to vanguish the evil , or the outlaw (Veera). He is pushed to his limits, when Veera kidnaps his own wife. He is cold and calculating, we are left schocked when he tortures Veera's brother -in-law, not Ram like behaviour.Dont get him wrong, he loves his wife and is worried sick of her and her safety. But he is not just satisfied with finding her, he wants to destroy Veera, which explains why he acts the way with Veera's brother(Vibeeshana). That to me was a different take on the Rama we have grown up knowing.
Contrary to many opinions out there, I actually do not think the plot was wafer thin. The plot was a slice of Ramayanam, and the director's exploration of the different shades in the characters. And like the movie's website reads, to ultimately point out that there is a little bit of Ravannan in every Rama and vice versa. Looking at it in that sense, I thought the movie stuck to plot we all have been hearing since we were 3, pretty darn well. Also I thought the characters were well developed.
Ragini is spunky, at least to others, She is scared, as she accepts and calls for help from her beloved, but she wastes no time in telling people what she thinks. She is temperamental and spontaneous, which Dev exploits at the end. She gets to see the softer side of her captor and we dont know if she has a soft spot for him or not, which Mani carefully left to our interpretation.
Veera like the ten headed demon king makes it more than obvious of how confused he is with all the voices in his head. He falls in love with another man's wife and finds himself wanting her love, than just wanting her. So much that when he has an opportunity to end it all , he doesnt. He thinks of her at that moment which proves to be his Achilees heel. Veera even agrees for a truce when accused by his brother of throwing it all away for a woman. Something that Ravannan never did.
Not to mention a different take at the end for the classic "Inru Poi Nalai Vaa". I loved that.
There were some tiny things, attention to detail in the movie that I thought were telling of Mani's brilliance. The scene where Karthik says "Pathuten..." a la "Kanden Sithaiyai" ,how Prabhu seemed to be always handling the affairs of food (Kumbhakarna -What a choice? :) ),and the scene between Veera and Karthik(Hanuman) where it was clear that at some point, it turns in to a clash of ego.
However there were a few things that made me cringe, the need to make Veera an eccentric. It was a Vikram we have seen probably a hundred times, and Karthik for the role of Hanuman. For as much as he was entertaining, he was always Karthik, and never Forrest, the character.
There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said about the cinematography. Stunning, yes. And yes although Suhasini did a decent job with the dialogues, you couldnt help but wonder what Sujatha would have written. What a loss!
That's it! I thought it was one of the most intelligently done movies in the recent times. I strongly believe despite the early bad reviews, the movie will grow on people and like I said in the beginning leave a good after taste.